With financial markets reflecting growing concern about the potential for a U.S. default, the White House on Wednesday announced a series of meetings with lawmakers from both parties to focus on the government shutdown, looming debt crisis and festering fiscal stalemate.
House Democrats have been invited to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW on Wednesday afternoon, a White House official said. Senate Democrats, House Republicans and Senate Republicans will be asked to attend similar sessions in the coming days.
Video
President Obama addressed the nation Tuesday, telling Congress to take a vote on a continuing resolution to end the government shutdown.
Hindu festival of Dussehra, protests in Rio de Janeiro, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef funeral, Miley Cyrus and more.
The meetings come as Republicans are accusing President Obama of not negotiating with them over the budget and spending impasse. On Tuesday, Obama and House Speaker John A. Boehner clashed publicly — but made no progress on how to reopen the government and pay the nation’s bills.
[See the latest updates on the financial crisis.]
Short-term borrowing by the Treasury Department became twice as expensive as it had been the day before, one of the most significant signs of alarm in the bond markets since the financial crisis of 2008.
The stock market, meanwhile, continued the steady slide that began in mid-September, when Boehner (R-Ohio) embraced a right-wing strategy for using the budget battles to try to dismantle Obama’s signature health-care initiative. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 20.67 points to 1,655.45 on Tuesday. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped nearly 160 points to 14,776.53 and has lost nearly 6 percent of its value since hitting a one-year high Sept. 18.
In a hastily planned news conference at the White House on Tuesday afternoon, Obama warned that default would be “insane, catastrophic, chaos,” and demanded that Boehner take the weight of that threat off the U.S. economy.
Once that happens, Obama said, “I am happy to talk with him and other Republicans about anything.” But Obama said he also told Boehner in a telephone call Tuesday morning that “having such a conversation, talks, negotiations shouldn’t require hanging the threats of a government shutdown or economic chaos over the heads of the American people.”
An hour later, Boehner fired back that Republicans will not yield until Obama comes to the bargaining table.
“I didn’t come here to shut down the government, and I certainly didn’t come here to default on our debt,” Boehner told reporters at the Capitol. But Obama, he said, is seeking “unconditional surrender by Republicans” before “he’ll sit down and talk. That’s not the way our government works.”
Both men spoke in calm tones, striving to appear reasonable. But with the shutdown in its second week and a critical deadline for government borrowing just eight days away, anxiety was building in Washington and on Wall Street.
Just last month, investors were willing to make short-term loans to the U.S. government virtually for free. On Tuesday, the one-month Treasury bill, which paid 0.13 percent interest on Monday, spiked to 0.27 percent — the highest rate since 2008. Borrowing for slightly longer durations has also become much more expensive in recent days.
House Democrats have been invited to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW on Wednesday afternoon, a White House official said. Senate Democrats, House Republicans and Senate Republicans will be asked to attend similar sessions in the coming days.
Video
President Obama addressed the nation Tuesday, telling Congress to take a vote on a continuing resolution to end the government shutdown.
Hindu festival of Dussehra, protests in Rio de Janeiro, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef funeral, Miley Cyrus and more.
The meetings come as Republicans are accusing President Obama of not negotiating with them over the budget and spending impasse. On Tuesday, Obama and House Speaker John A. Boehner clashed publicly — but made no progress on how to reopen the government and pay the nation’s bills.
[See the latest updates on the financial crisis.]
Short-term borrowing by the Treasury Department became twice as expensive as it had been the day before, one of the most significant signs of alarm in the bond markets since the financial crisis of 2008.
The stock market, meanwhile, continued the steady slide that began in mid-September, when Boehner (R-Ohio) embraced a right-wing strategy for using the budget battles to try to dismantle Obama’s signature health-care initiative. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 20.67 points to 1,655.45 on Tuesday. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped nearly 160 points to 14,776.53 and has lost nearly 6 percent of its value since hitting a one-year high Sept. 18.
In a hastily planned news conference at the White House on Tuesday afternoon, Obama warned that default would be “insane, catastrophic, chaos,” and demanded that Boehner take the weight of that threat off the U.S. economy.
Once that happens, Obama said, “I am happy to talk with him and other Republicans about anything.” But Obama said he also told Boehner in a telephone call Tuesday morning that “having such a conversation, talks, negotiations shouldn’t require hanging the threats of a government shutdown or economic chaos over the heads of the American people.”
An hour later, Boehner fired back that Republicans will not yield until Obama comes to the bargaining table.
“I didn’t come here to shut down the government, and I certainly didn’t come here to default on our debt,” Boehner told reporters at the Capitol. But Obama, he said, is seeking “unconditional surrender by Republicans” before “he’ll sit down and talk. That’s not the way our government works.”
Both men spoke in calm tones, striving to appear reasonable. But with the shutdown in its second week and a critical deadline for government borrowing just eight days away, anxiety was building in Washington and on Wall Street.
Just last month, investors were willing to make short-term loans to the U.S. government virtually for free. On Tuesday, the one-month Treasury bill, which paid 0.13 percent interest on Monday, spiked to 0.27 percent — the highest rate since 2008. Borrowing for slightly longer durations has also become much more expensive in recent days.